We have all seen urban runners, skating and bicyclists dodging traffic or paralleling busy roads and highways, and wondered: do the benefits of being in shape outweigh the dangers of breathing all that polluted air? According to medical experts, the answer may well be no. Read more >

Next time you decide to take the family to the beach or the local swimming hole — even if your local health department has not issued a health warning — you might want to leave the younger kids at home. Read more >

This is a question that researchers have been struggling with for decades, as developed nations such as the United States have seen an alarming rise in the number of children diagnosed as autistic. Read more >

In previous articles, we have compared the three remaining presidential candidates' positions on dealing with the uninsured, containing drug and other costs and Medicare, Medicaid and other federal entitlements. Read more >

Do vaccines given to infants and very young children somehow promote autism? This is the idea that researchers have been investigating and parents have been debating since a 1988 study of 12 children suggested such a link, provoking a wave of concern. Read more >

According to a frightening new study, global warming will cause more deaths from heat in future summers, but these deaths will not be offset by fewer deaths from cold in the milder winters to come. Read more >

If not your life, then at least your health, according to the Soap and Detergent Association (SDA), which issued its second Clean Hands Report Card, giving America a "C-minus" — a downgrade from 2004, when the country received a "C. Read more >

A recently released study has produced an improved understanding of the process of skin tanning, a breakthrough that may lead to a new way of protecting fair-skinned people from skin cancer. Read more >

With health care costs continuing to grow at a much higher rate than inflation, some policy makers have seized upon yet another technique they hope will restrain spending — "consumer-driven health care" in the form of "health savings accounts. Read more >